Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, and more particularly, to an LCD device and a method of driving the same in which, by decreasing the number of lines of a printed circuit board (PCB), the manufacturing cost is saved, and the influence of noise is reduced.
Discussion of the Related Art
In LCD devices, manufacturing technology is advanced, the drivability of a driving means is good, low power is consumed, high-quality images are realized, and a large screen is realized. Therefore, LCD devices are being popularized. Also, LCD devices are being applied to various fields such as portable computers including notebook computers, office automation equipment, portable multimedia equipment, indoor/outdoor display devices, etc., and the application fields of LCD devices are continuously expanding.
FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically illustrating a related art LCD device. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a connection structure between a connector and a plurality of timing controller merged integrated circuits (TMICs) mounted on a related art PCB.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the related art LCD device includes a liquid crystal panel 10 that displays an image, a backlight unit (not shown) that supplies light to the liquid crystal panel 10, and a driving circuit part that drives the liquid crystal panel 10.
The liquid crystal panel 10 includes an upper substrate (color filter array substrate), a lower substrate (thin film transistor (TFT) array substrate), and a liquid crystal layer formed between the upper substrate and the lower substrate. The liquid crystal panel 10 includes a plurality of pixels that are arranged in a matrix type, and adjusts the transmittance of light irradiated from the backlight unit to display an image.
The driving circuit part includes a gate driver 15, a plurality of TMICs 30, and a power supply (PMIC) 40. Here, the TMICs 30 and the power supply are mounted on the PCB 20.
A connector and a plurality of lines 60 for transferring external input signals to the TMICs 30 are formed in the PCB 20. Also, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) 70, which stores control data for driving the TMICs 30 and generating gamma voltages, is disposed in the PCB 20.
The gate driver 15 is formed in a gate-in panel (GIP) type in an inactive area of the liquid crystal panel 10, and sequentially supplies a scan signal to a plurality of gate lines formed in the liquid crystal panel 10.
Image signals and a control signal (including a timing signal) are inputted as low voltage differential signals (LVDSs) to the connector 50, and the LVDSs are supplied to the TMICs 30 through the lines 60 connected to the connector 50. In this case, the LVDSs inputted to the connector 50 are supplied to the TMICs 30 in a multi-drop type.
The TMICs 30 include a timing controller and a data driver. The TMICs 30 generate a control signal for controlling the gate driver 15 to supply the control signal to the gate driver 15, and generate a control signal for controlling the data driver to supply the control signal to the data driver 15. Also, the data driver provided in the TMICs 30 generates analog data voltages according to image signals included in the input LVDSs, and supply the respective data voltages to a plurality of data lines formed in the liquid crystal panel 10.
Since the related art LCD device having the above-described configuration applies the TMICs 30 for supplying data voltages to respective pixels of the liquid crystal panel 10, the manufacturing cost increases.
When the liquid crystal panel 10 has a 15.6 inches size screen, three TMICs 30 are applied to an LCD device, but, the three TMICs 30 are applied to one liquid crystal module (LCD), causing the reduction in price competitiveness.
Moreover, since the plurality of lines 60 are formed in the PCB 20 in order to supply the LVDSs to the TMICs 30, the area of the PCB 20 increases. Recently, research is conducted for reducing the area of the PCB 20 on which the driving circuit part of an LCD device is mounted, but, due to the plurality of lines 60 formed in the PCB 20, there is a limitation in reducing the area of the PCB 20.
Moreover, when three TMICs 30 are mounted on the PCB 20, a plurality of the lines 60 should be formed in the PCB 20 so as to respectively supply LVDSs to the three TMICs 30. In order to form a plurality of lines in a small area, an expensive build-up PCB is applied to an LCD device, causing the increase in the manufacturing cost of the LCD device.